The present invention relates to a radar apparatus for detecting an object on the periphery of a vehicle and a vehicle control apparatus for operating two or more traveling control apparatuses or alarm control apparatuses by means of the radar apparatus and stopping operation of traveling control or alarm control when detection performance of the radar apparatus is deteriorated.
Heretofore, in order to perform traveling control or alarm control of a vehicle, position information of a target detected by a radar apparatus mounted in a vehicle or relative speed information between the target and the vehicle is used. In such control, when detection performance of the radar apparatus is reduced due to a heavy rain or dirt attached to the surface of the radar apparatus, the traveling control or the alarm control cannot be performed in safety and accordingly avoidance measures for stopping all the controls are adopted.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,651 discloses a traveling safety device which changes a control logic so that traveling can be made in safety within the range that a radar apparatus can make detection when detection performance of the radar apparatus is reduced.
In the conventional method of stopping of all the controls, however, when the radar apparatus detects an obstruction short distance away, the traveling control or the alarm control cannot be performed and accordingly it is not desirable in safety.
Further, in the method of changing the control logic, a control range for a distance at which control is started is changed in accordance with detection performance of the radar apparatus and accordingly when judgment accuracy of detection performance deteriorates or when a strong reflection signal from a large obstruction is received, the obstruction is sometimes detected far from the maximum detecting distance of the detection performance of the radar apparatus. In such a case, alarm cannot be produced.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.